Most of the persons that post here will do so to announce to all that XYZ Diver is Superb, that ABC watch is extremely well built and exact, etc.
Today I want to evaluate in not too many words my life with the Casio G-Shock GS-1100-1A. I have had this watch for approximately three months. The watch was bought used for a fraction of what they cost new and I know, or have a suspicion of why the previous owner sold it…and you could not tell it was used, it was in perfect condition. This watch was a real beauty when I first set my eyes on it in the flesh.
I can write a bunch of things about how nice it is for this and also for doing that…etc, etc…etc., but I am going to try to give my true world impressions.
First off, I want to say that the watch is extremely top heavy. The head is very heavy in relation to the whole watch. Once on, the strap is comfortable but a watch of about 45mm of width and almost 16mm is big and cannot overpower the strap, so it cannot lie flat face up. It will lie on its side, reason why possibly it misses the daily Atomic signal, I do have to put it by a window.
The whole front of the watch is of only about 36mm in diameter. With the changes of black and stainless steel, it looks small but there is a groove al around that tends to gather dust and other debris, with more use I will have quite a collection of stuff in the groove.
The dial is charcoal black with hands that had some lume adhered, maybe as an afterthought. If you put the watch in the sun for a minute or so, they glow like kryptonite…for a minute or so…after that you must guess at the time under low light conditions, oh by the way, no back light. The sub dials- one which is a 24 hour clock, another the second hand and another one, the one at the 3 position is the day of the week, the Daylight savings, the Alarm and I do not know what else. Then the red main second hand tells you if it caught the Atomic Signal and some other things that are set around the outer part of the circle. On the chapter ring it has the cities of the world so you can set your watch to your needs.
Now, I have read the reviews and I coincide with mostly everything, they are not flattering but…to each their own. One area of real criticism is the fact that either the red second hand is slanted one minute or the whole dial is shifted off-center slightly to the left. It never is true on the dot, not in seconds or in minutes.
I sincerely hope that Casio remains in their well known niche of digitals…they are the Masters…with the analogs of this kind, after one gets totally frustrated trying to learn how to set them, and use them…after crumpling the little instruction booklet that serves no purpose and maybe one would be happier with a card telling you where to go on line to get the PDF instructions, after seeing the shortcomings of a rather expensive watch> $400.00 to $300.00 MSRP, I will rather buy another type of analog IMHO.
